New Delhi, Aug. 28 -- For Indian industrialists watching the rupee pile up in accounts they cannot easily repatriate from Russia, the Modi-Putin bilateral scheduled for August 31 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan cannot come soon enough.

India's imports from Russia have surged while its exports to Moscow have grown at a fraction of the pace. New Delhi wants that changed, and the SCO summit in Bishkek is the venue where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will press the case directly.

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar laid the groundwork four days earlier in the Kremlin. According to Sputnik, Putin told Jaishankar the two countries "continue to work in almost all areas" and singled out ...